The Ministry of Education is scrapping the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) exams for all polytechnics and TVET institutions around the country. The Ministry says the scrapping is part of the reforms laid out in the sector.
According to the Ministry of Education, all national polytechnics approved by the Kenya National Qualifications Authority will now start offering certification to students, the same way universities do when awarding certificates to their learners.
Students will be examined by a special TVET examination board that will be set in the institutions and awarded with diplomas and certificates. This also means that individual institutions will have powers of their own to set exams and award certificates.
Technical and Vocational Training Board Esther Muoria says students who join different universities are trained, examined and graduate in the same institution and this should also be done to those in national polytechnics in reforms that will increase competence.
She was speaking during the handover of the dairy processing unit set up by the Canadian government in Nyeri through the Kenya Education for Employment Programme (KEFEP).
“Just as the university trains and examines their students and awards them with degrees I don’t see any reason for those in TVET institutions to be examined by the Kenya National Examination council for them to be qualified,” said Dr. Muoria.
The government of Kenya, through the Ministry of Education, started TVET programs to accommodate hundreds of thousands of students who after form four, are not able to join universities due to lower grades. The institutions provide students with knowledge and skills in carpentry, masonry, electricity, and plumbing, among others.
In the 2022 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE), less than 30 percent of the candidates who did KCSE qualified to join universities. The rest will have to find places in polytechnics and TVET institutions.
